RE: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
Mike Wagner wrote: Is there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up??? Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems. What is your asterisk knowledge level? Have you set it up in your home/office? Have you fiddled with meetme, call parking, call transfer, DISA? (your users WILL want some if not all of these) Have you connected your box to FWD, IAXTEL? Have you made outbound voip calls through voicepulse, nufone, iconnecthere or some other provider? I think once you've done that, you'll be ready to ask better questions. The first few that come to mind are soft versus hard phones, T1 or ISDN or not, channel bank or not, etc. - Andrew Thompson http://aktzero.com/ http://www.retirequickly.com/43653 ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
First , you need to see what your insurance policy covered. If it covered replacement, then the easist thing for you to do is make the claim and replace your old pbx through a local service provider(asterisk or not). Second if you know next to nothing about pbx's and phone, then the time it takes you to learn asterisk, or whatever you choose, means no phones for your company's employees which in turn could equal more lost revenue, etc. Depending on your familiarity with linux, the learning curve could be steep and prove frustrating considering everything else you'll be dealing with (new network infrastructure, new computers, new servers, new telco/data circuits). Less expensive components does not always equal cheaper. Before I installed my system I knew tip/ring and some T-1 stuff on the telco side. It took me 3-4 months to get completely comfortable with asterisk and all the other telco things before I deployed my asterisk system, which replaced a working legacy pbx. The most difficult thing was the telco side. There are many ways to get dialtone, and telco engineers aren't always forthcoming with information. They are used to dealing with vendors that know what they know. my $0.02 -sb -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Mike Wagner Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 9:35 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help Hi All, We recently had an old office building burn down. The office housed maybe 20-30 people. Only about 10 or so of those had their own extensions. We had a standard pbx from an area communications company, and I'm not quite sure about what kind of phone lines were there, I only know that their were actually 3 phone numbers, but everyone could get an outside line if they needed to. We're looking at moving to a new building, and I would like to use Asterisk, because I feel it would be cheaper than purchasing a pbx. Is there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up??? Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! -Mike Wagner MCCESC ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
It sounds like you probably had a fractional t-1 with 3 DIDs (probably more that you didnt use). Did your data also go through this pipe? Get a copy of your bill from the phone company. Get a decent server. The beefier and more redundant the better. Get a single span t-1 card. As soon as you decide on a location, contact the Telco of your choice and initiate the T-1 installation process. It can sometimems take months. Ask them to extend the demarc to your suite if it isnt already. Make sure you have cat5e cabling to all the locations where phones are desired. Decide what phones you would like to ring when a call comes in, full autoattendant or auto-attendant backup after some time of ringing extensions. Extension range. IVR options (menu) If you need additional info you can contact me off-list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks, Steve - Original Message - From: Mike Wagner [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 9:34 AM Subject: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help Hi All, We recently had an old office building burn down. The office housed maybe 20-30 people. Only about 10 or so of those had their own extensions. We had a standard pbx from an area communications company, and I'm not quite sure about what kind of phone lines were there, I only know that their were actually 3 phone numbers, but everyone could get an outside line if they needed to. We're looking at moving to a new building, and I would like to use Asterisk, because I feel it would be cheaper than purchasing a pbx. Is there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up??? Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! -Mike Wagner MCCESC ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
On Wed, 2004-07-07 at 09:34, Mike Wagner wrote: Hi All, We recently had an old office building burn down. The office housed maybe 20-30 people. Only about 10 or so of those had their own extensions. We had a standard pbx from an area communications company, and I'm not quite sure about what kind of phone lines were there, I only know that their were actually 3 phone numbers, but everyone could get an outside line if they needed to. We're looking at moving to a new building, and I would like to use Asterisk, because I feel it would be cheaper than purchasing a pbx. Is there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up??? Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems. Any help is greatly appreciated. Asterisk has a very steep learning curve, so you need to be prepared to do a fair amount of research on your part. The best places are Google and the Wiki (http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk). Also check out the links on the bottom of the page at http://www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=support For a small implementation, you can use the 4-port FXO module (http://www.digium.com/index.php?menu=wildcard_tdm400p2) to get to 4 outside lines (FXO -- Foreign Exchange Office). While it will cost a bit more I think you will find SIP phones to be the best for use as phones -- assuming you have a good office network to plug everything into. Note that your mileage may vary (YMMV) when asking newbee questions on the mailing list. The folks who are most knowledgeable tend to be a little burned out on answering questions. Make sure you have done your research before asking a question. In many cases the archives *will* already have the same question and answer(s) in it and many responses will tend to push you towards them. Good luck. Asterisk can handle your problem assuming you put the right amount of effort into it. ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
Mike, My requirements were similar -- a small-scale, fully featured PBX. If you have a reliable, high-speed internet connection in the new building (business-class DSL or better, full-T1), you may want to go with all-digital phone lines. For your extensions you could either use IP-Phones (from $100 up, depending on features), or FXS devices such as the Sipura SPA-2000, which offers two analog phone ports on each $100 device. The phones you connect to it would be regular analog phones (even cordless), so they shouldn't be too expensive. If you need fancy screen-phones like a $100 Aastra 390, you might want to take a second look at $150+ IP Phones. I spent less than $300 on the server: $110ish for a CPU/Mobo combo with a Celeron 2.7GHz, $30 for a small case and power supply, $40 for 256MB RAM, $100 for an FXO card from Digium (for my one analog line), and a freebie 10MB harddrive I had sitting around -- or get a new 30MB for $50. I spent another $300 for three Sipura SPA-2000s giving me six extensions, and I already had all my phones. Cash cost was under $600. What I got was a transparent phone system -- the wife doesn't know it's there, as long as she dials all 11-digit numbers (this makes re-dial easy, because you don't care about the area code!) for outgoing calls. It automatically uses the least expensive line based on the area code (properly configured), and knows to use the PSTN line for 911 calls. Conferencing, call-parking, CDR, Voicemail and MOH are of course included and limited only by your hardware. We also have six incoming lines -- two Broadvoice unlimited state lines as well as one BYOD light plan; one Vonage hardline which is not connected, but rings on a Vonage Softline right into our phone system. Plus the old PSTN line for emergencies. So, if you compare cash-based value, the Asterisk system is clearly a winner -- but cash is only part of the cost. Be prepared to spend the better part of a week configuring everything for the first time. If you're not too well-versed in Linux, add a week. If you don't understand VOIP or PBX talk, add a week. (I had a working system, including building the hardware, in about 6 hours, but spent at least another 40 hours getting everything to work just right) But hey, considering your email address, maybe you could make it a class-project! -JM -Original Message- From: Mike Wagner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 8:35 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help Hi All, We recently had an old office building burn down. The office housed maybe 20-30 people. Only about 10 or so of those had their own extensions. We had a standard pbx from an area communications company, and I'm not quite sure about what kind of phone lines were there, I only know that their were actually 3 phone numbers, but everyone could get an outside line if they needed to. We're looking at moving to a new building, and I would like to use Asterisk, because I feel it would be cheaper than purchasing a pbx. Is there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up??? Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! -Mike Wagner MCCESC ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/aster isk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 10:09:42 -0400, Andrew Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Mike Wagner wrote: Is there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up??? Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems. What is your asterisk knowledge level? I suggest you checkout http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+consultants and find a consultant in your area to help you. Jason ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
That's all extremely way over my head. I have no pbx knowledge at all... and we're a small organization, so we can't afford to buy the modem cards just to test it out. Guess I'm going to have to do some reading. I don't want a VOIP based solution. We'd like to get numbers through the phone company, and use Asterisk as a standard pbx. -MW Andrew Thompson wrote: Mike Wagner wrote: Is there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up??? Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems. What is your asterisk knowledge level? Have you set it up in your home/office? Have you fiddled with meetme, call parking, call transfer, DISA? (your users WILL want some if not all of these) Have you connected your box to FWD, IAXTEL? Have you made outbound voip calls through voicepulse, nufone, iconnecthere or some other provider? I think once you've done that, you'll be ready to ask better questions. The first few that come to mind are soft versus hard phones, T1 or ISDN or not, channel bank or not, etc. - Andrew Thompson http://aktzero.com/ http://www.retirequickly.com/43653 ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
Bisker, Scott (7805) wrote: Depending on your familiarity with linux, the learning curve could be steep and prove frustrating considering everything else you'll be dealing with (new network infrastructure, new computers, new servers, new telco/data circuits). Less expensive components does not always equal cheaper. Before I installed my system I knew tip/ring and some T-1 stuff on the telco side. It took me 3-4 months to get completely comfortable with asterisk and all the other telco things before I deployed my asterisk system, which replaced a working legacy pbx. The most difficult thing was the telco side. There are many ways to get dialtone, and telco engineers aren't always forthcoming with information. They are used to dealing with vendors that know what they know. my $0.02 -sb I found my learning curve pretty short ( 2 weeks) with asterisk, and I am a relatively new Linux user. My biggest challenge was also different terminology with the voice provider. They are a softswitch provider, and use different terminology than I or Digium, and users on the message board were accustomed to. For example, they can't even provide a PRI T-1 circuit without bringing in a channel bank and several other pieces of gear. What ended up working for us was a TDM T-1 Digium called that a standard non-pri T-1 line. After getting the voice/data provider on a teleconference call with Digium, we hashed out what would work. I now have a full T-1 with 4 channels broken out of an ADTran box that provides a T-1 / Ethernet breakout. This splits a T-1 into an Ethernet line for my business network (channels 5-23 are data) and a T-1 signaled line for a Digium T100P card (channels 1-4 are voice channels with hunting and caller ID) You need to plan ahead for asterisk, unless you can make arrangements for your users' phones until you get up to speed on it. Also, I never regret choosing asterisk as my PBX. We're a remote office and our home office is using Cisco CM provided by a third party provider and they hate how inflexible it is, because of all the crap they have to go through just to get changes made to the CM config. HTH, Nik ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
Even to interface analog lines with asterisk you'd need hardware too which perhaps will put it out of the reach of your small organization. $100 for a x100p (a analog port for asterisk) On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:27:38 -0400, Mike Wagner [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That's all extremely way over my head. I have no pbx knowledge at all... and we're a small organization, so we can't afford to buy the modem cards just to test it out. Guess I'm going to have to do some reading. I don't want a VOIP based solution. We'd like to get numbers through the phone company, and use Asterisk as a standard pbx. -MW Andrew Thompson wrote: Mike Wagner wrote: Is there any reccomendations as to how I might set this up??? Keep in mind that I know next to nothing about pbx's and phone systems. What is your asterisk knowledge level? Have you set it up in your home/office? Have you fiddled with meetme, call parking, call transfer, DISA? (your users WILL want some if not all of these) Have you connected your box to FWD, IAXTEL? Have you made outbound voip calls through voicepulse, nufone, iconnecthere or some other provider? I think once you've done that, you'll be ready to ask better questions. The first few that come to mind are soft versus hard phones, T1 or ISDN or not, channel bank or not, etc. - Andrew Thompson http://aktzero.com/ http://www.retirequickly.com/43653 ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] New PBX Help
Mike, Also note that the wiki and google might also yield BAD/Wrong/not necessarily the way to do it, answers, so do not stop with the first one you find addressing your particular problem. Chances are if its a bad answer, someone will come in screaming a few posts later and rectify the problem, or offer a clue-by-four. (I love that quote) Then it will be hashed for a week, and a consensus will emerge, and the next poor soul who inadvertently wanders in and asks that same question will have his head dented by someone screaming to consult the wiki...or We just discussed that, RTFM or whatever... So it might be there, or it might not, or it might be wrong, or it might be right, or it might be wrong, and then made right a bit further down...oh and expect some rudeness from some as well.. And YES, your effort at surmounting these obstacles will pay off...even IF we cant get rid of the damned echo... Its a trip, any way you cut it ;) Marc Note that your mileage may vary (YMMV) when asking newbee questions on the mailing list. The folks who are most knowledgeable tend to be a little burned out on answering questions. Make sure you have done your research before asking a question. In many cases the archives *will* already have the same question and answer(s) in it and many responses will tend to push you towards them. Good luck. Asterisk can handle your problem assuming you put the right amount of effort into it. ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
